I'm after readers' thoughts on the future of ANZES (the combined
AN/NZ engineering operation) after this weeks takeover bid by QF
taking into account the following issues.

a) Airnz are bound by an agreement with CASA to rebuild AN engineering
after all it's recent problems. This is not going to be a cheap
exercise. Do you think Airnz will pump the money and resources into
a company that they may not own in 6 - 12 months time?

b) Will SQ leave ANZES as it is and just buy AN the airline and not
their engineering division? I personally don't think this would
sit well with SQ, having their future fleet maintained by there
main competitors.

Such is the daily drama of divorce. "Oh honey, you can keep the res system, but I'll have the Corporate Travel section." ANNZES is going to be a hard nut to split up - and AN would get the rough end of the deal should that happen. All of their experienced old hands at management level are gone for the most part. Provided it was run as a seperate company from both NZ and AN, then I guess both airlines could contract ANNZES to supply their maintenance. As with the scenario as a whole though, there's one hell of a lot of water still to pass under the bridge before this one gets to be crossed.
Cheers. Al.

Perhaps AANZES would not be such a problem - if QF can get other airlines (and competitors) to do their engineering, as do many other airlines around the world (QF does ANZ line checks still in SYD - remember the B767 'flap runner' incident recently), and bare in mind that SAECo has little or no experience with B767's. Also look at the joint venture that painted the Impulse 717 at Richmond - an Air NZ company.

I think that AANZES is the least of their worries; two assasinations required now - Selwyn Cushing and Helen Clark.